HYDERABAD: To improve the veterinary healthcare service and to create a large pool of veterinary doctors and professionals, the State government will establish four new veterinary colleges in Telangana soon, disclosed Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Wednesday. Apart from the veterinary college currently operational in Warangal, he said that new ones would come up in Siddipet, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and one other district.
Chairing a review on the progress made on the animal husbandry front in the State, Harish said that the Centre is implementing the Mobile Veterinary Clinics (MVC) across the country after it was first implemented in Telangana. “By doing so, the Centre is proving the commitment of Chief Minister K Chandrase-khar Rao in protecting the liv-es of farm animals,” he said.
Disclosing that `370 crore was spent for distribution of 58,992 crore buffaloes on subsidy, Harish said that distributing fodder seeds on subsidy and giving `4 per litre milk to dairy farmers to encourage them has resulted in an increase in milk production.
Pointing out how the Vijaya Dairy, which was running in losses earlier, now has a turnover of `800 crore, Harish said that due to the steps initiated by the State government, the dairy has seen an increase of 30,000 litre milk collection from farmers, and its products like Vijaya Ghee were being distributed to pregnant women in the nutrition kits being given by the State government.
Harish also said that artificial insemination camps were being held across the State on a large scale, and that construction of a mega dairy with a capacity of 5 lakh litres was going on at a rapid pace. Explaining how fish production has increased in the State, he said that in 2021-22, by spending `76 crore to release 77.49 crore fish fingerlings in 23,263 irrigation tanks, the fish production has shot up to 3.76 lakh tonnes with a value of `5,410 crore.
Harish said that for the first time, `20.85 crore was spent to release 8 crore prawn fingerlings in 275 tanks, resulting in the production of 13,827 tonne prawns, valued at `448.93 crore last year. This year, 88.53 crore fish fingerlings were being released in 26,778 water bodies, and 10 crore prawn fingerlings in 350 tanks, he said.
4 MORE VET COLLEGES
4 veterinary colleges to come up in Siddipet, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and one other district